Fig. 2. Conceptual description of planetary boundaries. In (a) the boundary is designed to avoid the crossing of a critical continental to global threshold in an Earth System process. Insufficient knowledge and the dynamic nature of the threshold generate a zone of uncertainty about its precise position, which informs the determination of where to place the boundary. In (b) there is no global threshold effect as far as we know, but exceeding the boundary level will lead to significant interactions with regional and global thresholds and/or may cause a large number of undesired threshold effects at the local to regional scale, which in aggregate add up to a serious global concern for humanity.